The Basic Cryptology Test

You solved the cipher! Nice work. Well, in case you want to see the nicely punctuated solution:

"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher that no one could break."
David Kahn

David Kahn's The Codebreakers is the canonical text on cryptology that is a required follow-up for this test, naturally. That is, if you like reading very thick non-fiction books. I'd recommend the 2nd (1996) edition - it's more up-to-date.

If you like reading very thick fiction books, then Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is the terrifically engaging required follow-up for this test.

If you don't like reading books at all, then you might enjoy this interactive site, where you can encipher and decipher secret messages in a variety of cryptosystems to your heart's content. Unfortunately, the interactive features don't seem to work in Firefox. :(

All possible test results

So I see you didn't bother with the bonus. Well, in case you're wondering what it said:
"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if t... Read more

You solved the cipher! Nice work. Well, in case you want to see the nicely punctuated solution:
"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one th... Read more